R.I.P — Alex Forbes 1925-2014

Alex Forbes has passed away at the age of 89 he appeared in 240 games for Arsenal over an 8 year period, scoring 20 goals.

Alexander Rooney Forbes was born 21 January 1925 in Dundee Scotland He started his career playing wartime matches with Dundee North End, before signing for Sheffield United. He was a regular for United in the first two seasons of competitive football after the war ended, and made his debut for Scotland, against England on 12 April 1947. However, he was sidelined by an attack of appendicitis midway through the 1948-49 season and could not regain his place afterwards.

Transfer-listed by the Blades, Forbes signed for Arsenal (after being persuaded by the Gunners’ Archie Macaulay, who was a friend of his) in February 1948 for £15,000. He made his debut against Wolves on 6 March 1948. Nicknamed “Red” (for the colour of his hair) and known for his hard tackling, he picked up a First Division winners’ medal in his first season at Arsenal, making 11 appearances that season. Forbes managed to eventually displace his friend Macaulay from the Arsenal side, becoming a regular for seven seasons. He went on to win a second title in 1952-53, and picked up an FA Cup winners’ medal in 1949-50.

He continued to also play for Scotland, eventually picking up 14 caps for his country. In all, Forbes played 240 games for Arsenal, scoring 20 goals. However, injury blighted his final season with the Gunners – a problem with his knee cartilage demanded an operation, which restricted him to five appearances in 1955-56. Having lost his place to Dave Bowen, Forbes moved to Leyton Orient in August 1956. He spent a season there before seeing out his career with Fulham.

After retiring from playing, Forbes spent some time coaching the Arsenal reserves and youth teams. He later emigrated to Johannesburg, South Africa, to coach children at a local private school, Yeshiva College of South Africa. He was also chairman of the South African branch of the Arsenal supporters’ club. He recently had a hip replacement.

Forbes is the last surviving player from Arsenal’s 1950 FA Cup Final winning team.

GunnerN5 is proud to say that I watched the majority of Alex’s home games for Arsenal, he was a rough and tough player to played with his heart hanging out of his shirt.

Rest in peace Alex, you were the last remaining player from Arsenal’s 1950 FA Cup Final winning team.

Alex was my hero during those hard days after the war. He was exactly what AFC could really use now ie; a DMF with guts and workrate that would leave the rest standing. I send all my wishes to his family and thanks to Alex, he will be missed by all true Gunners.

Many thanks for this, GN5, I didn’t know of Alex Forbes, certainly makes interesting reading. Condolences to his family of course – his was obviously a life lived well.

I see from his Wiki page that he represented Scotland in ice hockey as well as football, and he managed various sides, including one of African football’s giants, Orlando Pirates from Soweto in South Africa. The fact he undertook that role in 1975, when the rebellion against apartheid and the state’s murderous oppression of the majority were at their height, suggests a man of real moral fibre.

Alex Forbes was one of my early football heroes he played in the days of brown leather ankle high boots and the brown leather ball with leather lacing to hold the bladder inside the ball. The boot studs were made of circular layers of leather nailed into the soles of the boots, on many occasions the heads of the nails protruded inside the boot and left some nasty callouses on the bottom of your feet.

The referee checked every players studs before he went onto the pitch to ensure that no nail heads were exposed on the bottoms of the studs. Believe me studs were used as a weapon and our Alex was one of the better exponents of running his studs down an opponents legs. He was a rough, tough, gruff player and quickly earned the “respect” of his opponents – who mostly shied away from him.

Referee’s still check a players studs today – but I’m unsure what they are checking for – maybe its just a throwback?

The nails were used to good effect! The leather the studs were formed with used to wear out leaving the heads of the nails exposed, and they resulted in a lot of ugly scars – hence the referee doing the safety check.

Reports from leading Journalists in Colombia claim the 21-year-old Colombian playmaker Juan Fernando Quintero is poised to join the Gunners and could be set to be announced as early as tomorrow by the club.

Too much paper talk not to believe Quintero is about to sign.He plays midfield or left wing,so who is going Santi or Podolski.
My initial hunch as you know was Santi but it could be either as I can’t see all three staying , if this happens.

Still Vermaelen to sort out so a maximum of 3 signings could be 6.

Did you read we got the best part of 16 million back on what was owing on the Cesc transfer plus add ons to Chelsea plus what was owing on Song so basically Chambers cost nothing.

Good luck to Carl, gooner or not,but I suspect there might well be a recall in his loan deal.

Well, strategically I think the Latin America connection is very valuable. Chile, Colombia, and so on. Not only for extending the brand into the continent, but potentially a fantastic source of young talent. Traditionally Spain and Portugal have been the primary destinations for talent from that part of the world, maybe Arsenal is going to tap into that market. Exciting. :)

Micky. I meant right about keeping everyone. About being expensive I guess not that much, he is not an English player :razz: £16m is the figure doing the rounds, same as Chambers, and I can believe that. :razz:

Chambers, and his cost, look very good to me for a prospect/back up, but if I assume Arsene is looking for a LW’er, then we should be looking for a first choice and therefore be a starter ahead of Podolski. Someone speedy in the Griezman (sp?) mould.

Maybe this Quintero is the man for us, although where the rumour comes from, who knows.

So Eddie fell out with the now pro Arsenal BT, and has no broadband because the Sky company she signed up with have to send her juice down a BT line, whose owners have marked our Eddie down as lowest possible priority :-)

I think that everything published made a great deal of sense.
However, consider this, suppose you added a little information? I am not saying your information isn’t good., but what if you added a post title that makes people desire more?
I mean R.I.P – Alex Forbes 1925-2014 | Arsenal
Arsenal is a little plain. You might peek at Yahoo’s front page and note how they create
news titles to get viewers to click. You might try adding a
video or a related picture or two to grab people interested about everything’ve got to
say. Just my opinion, it would make your website a little livelier.